All eyes in the NHL, especially in Chicago, were on Minnesota on Sunday night as the Wild, one way or another, would determine the final playoff spot in the West.

Thanks to the Blackhawks losing to Detroit earlier in the day, a Wild regulation or overtime loss to Dallas would send the Stars to the playoffs. A Wild victory would send Chicago.

Who'd the Wild help?

"I've never been more excited after a hockey game in my life that I didn't participate in," Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "I was acting like a 2-year-old ... celebrating his birthday."

The Wild won 5-3, in large part because Jose Theodore, who played for Quenneville in Colorado, made 26 saves and ruined the day of two of his best friends, Stars players Stephane Robidas and Mike Ribeiro.

"Coach Q in Chicago, he knows I have his back," Theodore said.

And what about Robidas and Ribeiro?

"Warmups, they were trying to bribe me and everything, offering me money," Theodore said. "During the game, Ribeiro kept telling me he needed one, he only had 19 goals. Every time I was making a save, especially at the end against [Brenden] Morrow, I just looked at Ribeiro.

"I'll bug those guys in the summer."

Brad Staubitz, Jared Spurgeon, Colton Gillies and Pierre-Marc Bouchard scored for the Wild, and in perhaps his final game with the Wild, free-agent-to-be and former Stars winger Antti Miettinen broke a 3-3 tie with the eventual winning goal against his old team.